Billy Torrence Races to Semifinals

Invigorated by the opportunity to drive competitively for the first time in more than nine months, Billy Torrence responded Sunday by taking son Steve’s CAPCO Contractors Top Fuel Toyota to the semifinals before losing to eventual race winner Doug Kalitta in the 43rd Lucas Oil Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway.  

After a couple of shakedown runs on Friday to re-acclimate himself to one of the world’s fastest-accelerating vehicles, the 67-year-old founder and CEO of CAPCO laid down back to-back runs of 3.746 and 3.713 seconds to qualify No. 4.

He beat former European Top Fuel Champion Ida Zetterstrom and current title contender Tony Stewart in the first two rounds and looked fully capable of revisiting the Brainerd winners’ circle in which he celebrated the first of his eight Top Fuel victories in 2018.

Unfortunately, he ran into a buzzsaw in Kalitta, the 2023 World Champion who, after qualifying No. 1, threw a best-of-race-day time of 3.665 at Torrence, good enough to cover a solid 3.710 from the car in which Steve Torrence won earlier this year at Bristol, Tenn.  Also competing in Super Comp, a category in which he has a pair of national event wins, Torrence was eliminated in round two 

Son Steve will finish the season in the same race car, pursuing a third Top Fuel win in the Labor Day U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis, Ind., before launching his bid for a fifth Mission Foods Series championship in the NHRA’s six-race Countdown to the Championship.

The Countdown will include a stop at the Torrences’ home track, the Texas Motorplex, for the 40th renewal of the Texas Fall Nationals, the cornerstone of the Stampede of Speed.

Due to the demands of the business and his increased family responsibilities with two young daughters, Steve has missed four races this year including the last three.